NOTHING PERSONAL / JUST BUSINESS
A The Godfather post.
Your mate asks if you can help with "a small favour". Forty minutes later you are holding a sofa on a staircase, and he is saying "just a bit to the left" about a wall. Someone you haven't spoken to since school messages "hey, long time!" You know exactly how this ends. A week later there is a link to a skincare scheme, and the dignity is gone. The group chat finally needs your opinion on the restaurant. You give it. Nobody replies. Three hours on, they book the other place and say thanks anyway. A colleague you barely know asks for "a quick favour" and a reference. He brings biscuits to your desk next Monday. You are now somehow on his side in everything. **Why it caught on:** the picture is Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in *The Godfather*, the 1972 film of Mario Puzo's novel, in a tuxedo with a red rose, hands open as if weighing up a request. People caption it with the film's best-known line, "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse", and bend it to anything: polite threats, favours, and birthday wishes to a boss. The dignified, slightly weary pose lets any small thing sound like a matter of respect.